Disclaimer: Despite what you may have heard, I do not own any characters from Pirates of the Caribbean. Disney owns everything -tear- However, if any of you know where I can find my own Johnny Depp or Orlando Bloom I would be most obliged.

Disclaimer #2 : This is my first fic. -insert anxious smile here- While I'm going to try very hard and do a fair bit of finger crossing, this will not be the novel of the century. I apologize. I do hope that you will enjoy it, or at the very least review it. Muchas gracias, -Miss Cleo-

P.S. If anyone would be willing to be my beta reader for this story I would be ever so thankful. (You can e-mail me at )

Prologue

Jessica hated pirate stories. All of these romantic ideas of pirates bravely fighting off the Navy, living a life of complete freedom. The Navy, now those were men that one could admire. They seemed to have many less stories than the pirates though. She'd seen pirates and there was nothing romantic about them.

They had raided her port town when she was five. She had been in the tavern of the inn where she lived. Her parents had died a couple years before and she and her sister Ashley were taken in by Mr. and Mrs. Tanner (although everyone called her Mrs. Bella) who owned the inn, The Lucky Dame. Jessica adored Mrs. Bella, wanted to be like her in every way. Her blond hair flowed like silk when she walked, although Jessica wasn't sure she'd call it walking. It was more like a dance. The way that she glided across the room, and the way her skirts swirled ever so gently when she turned.

The happiest times that Jessica could remember were late at night after all the patrons had left. Mrs. Bella would ease open the door, and creep into the girls' room, gently shaking her awake.

"Bella," she would say, "the faeries are out. They're dancing all about the tavern. Come and see." Then the woman and the girl would tiptoe down the steps, hand in hand.

They stopped in the middle of the steps and stared out through the bars on the staircase. The moonlight poured in through the window and reflected off all the little crystal animals that had been placed around the room. The effect was magnificent.

All the colors of the rainbow danced and twinkled across the walls of the room. The animals had been bought with all the tip money Mrs. Bella could spare, and sometimes the money she couldn't. Jessica remembered the first day the Mrs. Bella had come home with one.

She had pulled Jessica aside late at night and closed the tavern door behind her. They stood in the shadows of the room while Mrs. Bella held out her hand with a dainty crystal humming bird resting in her palm. "You mother left this to you. Do you know what this is?" she asked.

Awed, Jessica could only reply, "A glass birdie."

"Sort of, it's a faerie home" The child cast her senior a dubious look. Mrs. Bella laughed and explained, "This is where the faeries live most of the time, but on the full moon, they come out and dance and play all over the room until day comes and it's time to go home again."

Jessica was still doubtful so the woman placed the humming bird on a table in the middle of the room. The child gave a shriek of delight as the moonbeams struck the bird and hundreds of tiny lights were reflected about the room. "The faeries! The faeries!" she squealed. Before she knew it she had been swept up into the arms of the lady and was being twirled around the room. The two danced like that for hours. Jessica giggled and realized she now knew what the pastor had been talking about when he described heaven. After hours of dancing Mrs. Bella informed Jessica that the faeries in the hummingbird were under her protection and she must keep watch over them always. The child solemnly nodded her head.

Throughout the following years, whenever there was a full moon, Mrs. Bella would creep up the stairs again and the two would dance in secret with the faeries.

It had been one such night when the pirates came. Mr. Tanner was away on business, securing supplies in another town. The women were engaged in a walz spanning the entire room when they heard the first scream. It was as if the scream had broken a dam of silence and a torrent of noises poured through and swept away the town.

After the initial shock, Bella grabbed Jessica's hand and pulled her determinedly over to the cabinet where she deposited her inside. "Wait here" she instructed before running up the stairs to retrieve baby Ashley. She placed the baby in her sisters arms. "Be a good girl and hold your sister." She ordered calmly. Jessica would have thought she wasn't worried in the slightest if it hadn't been for the fear behind her eyes.

The child simply nodded mutely and Mrs. Bella promptly shut the cabinet door and locked it, feeling a little better since at least the child wouldn't be able to see from in there. However, she had overlooked a crack that Mr. Tanner had promised to mend but had eventually forgotten.

So Jessica watched through the crack as Mrs. Bella had only enough time to grab a kitchen knife before the first pirate burst in the doors.

The first thing Jessica noticed was the smell. It smacked into her body like a wave and she reeled back. It was as if garbage had been left out in the sun all day to rot. Jessica had the urge to throw up, and probably would have, if fear didn't choke up her throat when she saw the man.

She no longer even has a clear memory of the man's appearance because at the time all she could think of was evil. This man was evil. He lived it, he breathed it, he reeked of it, and he way coming toward the kitchen.

"C'mon lads," he called, "They's wont be havin' any valuables here but at least we can steal some food. Maybe we wont be havin' t' eat any more o' that excuse fer food th' chef calls gruel."

Jessica watched with round eyes as the man made a beeline for her cabinet. "I'm afraid I can't allow that gentlemen." Mrs. Bella stated as she blocked the entrance to the kitchen.

"Look mates, we even get a little strumpet on the side" he guffawed. When he reached out his hand Mrs. Bella lunged out with her knife causing a large slash down the man's face. It snaked up from his chin passing over his mouth and ending at the bridge of his nose. He screamed in pain.

"You little bitch" the man growled. In a second the back of his hand was slammed against the poor woman's face. She flew into a wall, the knife clattering from her hand.

"Let's go whore" the pirate snarled. He grabbed her by her hair and started dragging her out of the room. Jessica watched as the beautiful blonde hair was wrapped around the man's fist and the graceful body of her new mother was dragged kicking and screaming across the floor, her face a mask of panic and anger.

"Mommy" she wimpered. When she saw the shoe disappear around the door she promptly turned around, and threw up.

The next thing Jessica saw was the tired, dirty face of one of Her Majesty's Navy. The men had quickly freed her when they entered her house the next morning and heard her crying from behind the cabinet door. He found her with her arms clasped tightly around her baby sister. The look in her eyes suggested God help the person who tried to separate them. The man scooped her up into his arms and told her everything was going to be all right. He made her a glass of warm milk and took her and her sister to the house of a neighbor until her father arrived.

When Mr. Tanner arrived home, the smoke had served to warn him of the destruction from many miles away. He spurred the horse on faster, but the advance warning did nothing to soften the shock when the naval officer told him in a steady voice that his wife had been found dead among the bushes. Jonathan Tanner had collapsed upon the chair. It was as if a great wind was blowing past his face. The roaring of the wind nearly drowned out the officer's next words, reminding him that that he still had two daughters at the house across the street that needed to be taken care of.

He arrived at the house to find her sitting in the woman's parlor with her sister in her arms.

She was still clutching Ashley when they entered the tavern to find that, while it hadn't caught fire, the room was in ruins. Jessica gazed around at the shards of crystal scattered about the room. She allowed a single tear to roll down her cheek when she realized that the faeries were dead. The evil of the men had shattered thier homes and now they were dead.

A flash of light coming from a potted plant in the corner caught her eye. She ran over to investigate. Smudged with dirt, Jessica removed the hummingbird from the folds of the leaves at the bottom of the pot. Now the tears began to flow freely down her cheeks. She wrapped it carefully in a handkerchief and deposited it in her pocket.

So that was how Jessica knew that there was nothing romantic about pirates. They were the most evil, greedy, perverted, disgusting, slimy creatures ever to crawl the earth.

Thanks Again. I've put up both chapters one and two together so read on gentle reader.